Alan Zendell, May 6, 2026

Whenever someone asks him a question about his Iran war, Trump lauds “our incredible military.” Seeing our forces bomb Iranian targets with little resistance and sink Iranian naval vessels obviously excites him, elevating his normal tendency to exaggerate and fabricate to embarrassing levels, especially in light of things he’s said about them in the past. In case you’ve forgotten, let’s ask Four Star Marine General John Kelly what he recalls.

The widely respected Kelly was in charge of the Southern Command, which was responsible for all U. S. military action in South and Central America and the Caribbean before being appointed Secretary of Homeland Security by Donald Trump in 2017. But after six months in the position, Kelly became White House Chief of Staff because disarray in the White House required someone with strong leadership skills to right the ship. It was widely reported that Kelly’s role was to impose discipline on the president.

Kelly respected the chain of command, which included respecting Trump’s role as Commander in Chief, which made him Kelly’s superior from two points of view. He did his job dutifully and discreetly, never expressing his obvious frustration with dealing with Trump until well after he was fired as Chief of Staff. A lesser individual might have turned on Trump out of anger or spite, but Kelly had nothing to prove after his illustrious career.

In 2020, with a presidential election pitting Trump against Joe Biden looming, Kelly sat for an interview with The Atlantic. He described the president as “[a] person that thinks those who defend their country in uniform, or are shot down or seriously wounded in combat, or spend years being tortured as POWs are all suckers because ‘there is nothing in it for them[,]’ … a person that did not want to be seen in the presence of military amputees because ‘it doesn’t look good for me[,]’ … a person who demonstrated open contempt for a Gold Star family. Kelly went on to say that Trump privately disparaged people like Arizona Senator John McCain and former President George H. W. Bush as losers for being shot down and captured by the enemy.”

In an interview with NBC news in 2025, Kelly slammed Trump “as a person who is not truthful … on his position on the protection of unborn life, on women, on minorities, on evangelical Christians, on Jews, on working men and women. A person who has no idea what America stands for…” I’m not a veteran, but I spent three years in the Pentagon during the Vietnam conflict, and I have great respect for our military personnel. Hearing Trump disparage them after using his father’s  money to dodge the draft himself made me sick.

Watching and hearing the military briefings on his Iran war infuriates me. Yesterday’s briefing was both embarrassing and frightening. Any objective person watching it would have cringed seeing Trump ecstatic about rubbing elbows with the generals he commands, knowing that whatever lies he tells or fantasies he indulges in, they will all maintain proper decorum before the cameras, no matter how much they despise both the man and his words. Trump revels in firing generals he didn’t like, including suggesting that former Joint Chiefs Chairman Mark Milley be tried for treason. He intervened in this year’s list of officers up for promotion to General, striking the names of the blacks and women, despite their qualifications and recommendations.

After yesterday’s briefing, Trump took questions from reporters, sounding like an insecure schoolyard bully who knows he can do anything he wants because daddy is the principal. He sounded childish, but that’s old news. The frightening part was that he sounded completely unhinged, his ego dominating everything, throwing around absurd threats and insults, and beyond that simply sounding irrational and completely out of his depth. The larger problem is that every political and military leader in world watched and heard him.

With Trump’s upcoming visit to China still scheduled, reporters asked him if he intended to discuss the Iran War with Xi Jinping. Trump couldn’t just say “Yes,” however, without bragging about his wonderful relationship with Xi, how supportive Xi has been about the war, and how much money the United States was making from tariffs on Chinese imports.

I’m shocked that Trump hasn’t postponed his trip to China claiming he must remian here to direct the war effort. As conditions in the Persian Gulf deteriorate, and the alleged cease fire looks more like a resumption of hostilities, it’s clear that Trump’s cards are being trumped by Iran. I can’t imagine that even our mentally ill president will fail to realize that Xi laughs at him.

As Trump was going on about how America is the hottest country in the world, respected by everyone, I had to turn him off before I threw the remote at the screen.